Puttin ‘er together

Forrest arrived from Truckee late Thursday night, and we promptly started in on his bike Friday afternoon, right after a 4 hour dirt bike spin in the woods. Nice way to finish the work week…

We actually stopped mid-ride to help Phil (of Phil’s Trail fame) with a bit of trail work on the Mrazek mountain bike trail. He was getting ready to open up a new section which he’s been working on for the past year or so. Three dirt bikers can make short work of sagebrush, small trees and dirt piles, even when we’re not on our dirt bikes! Note, this is the one and only time you will ever catch Josh doing trail work on a bicycle trail, this photo may become valuable some day…

Eric working while Phil oversees. It’s easy to work hard for 30 minutes as we did, not so easy to work for 8 months, several days a week to build a new bit of trail, as Phil did. Not to mention the other 20 odd years he has put into our local mountain bike trail system…

Phil, erecting the new signage:

Finally, back to the Spin Cycles Studio, after some great mexican food downtown.

We assembled the front end of the bike, despite the fact that the new (actually very well used) forks from a donor CB500 still need to be re-built. We wanted to get the controls on and adjusted. The new (old) brake & clutch levers were installed, along with their cables. The headlight & turn signals were bolted into place, and the speedo mount was fabricated.

Josh continued chipping away at the wiring harness. Poor Josh, the wiring aspect of the bike is the one item that Eric simply does not ‘get’. All of Josh’s wiring questions are answered with the most amazingly blank stare.

The front brakes were adjusted and installed:

We let Forrest take on some of the more rewarding tasks, such as cleaning the rust out of his fuel tank. That was six dollars in BB’s well spent. Thanks for the tip on that one, Jaxon! After the BB wash, Forrest inserted the vinegar/salt concoction, stirred, and repeated throughout the weekend. I’m sure he still smelled like vinegar when he got home to Tahoe.